Raw 18/07/11 Spoilers (MITB results included)

the groutch

HHH taking over?
Cena not fired?
Trying to create a new champion, even though Punk has the belt after beating Cena?
Kofi Vs Rey for that championship, and Del Rio still not getting a chance, even though he's the official No 1 contender, and Mr MITB?

thebostoncrab

Maybe because it's two straight nights of staying ip until 4am and getting up at 6am for work but I can't tell what is sarcasm and what is real anymore

Lord TSC

Liked the begining and end (it makes sense Vince would "strip" Punk of the title) but I hate torunaments with a vengence. As soon as I saw Truth and Miz won, I could write the rest of the tourney. And then, after spending an entire show building up to the main event, they announce its not happening tonight? Thats BS.

Anyway, the final segment was amazing. "I'll go wrestle for someone else, brother!" had me marking like a school girl and HHH revealing he was taking over was brilliant (Congrats Punked, cause you called that and I dismissed it :P )

Show Time

thebostoncrab wrote: »

I'm indifferent to the whole thing. I wasnt expecting it but that doesn't instantly make for good TV. While it has all the potential to be a great angle I think it started off a little akward. Maybe it was the "I love ya pop" line or Vince could I've put up a fight since it's not like him to just accept defeat.

Let's see how this goes, but I think it's started off akward.

Spot on i was waiting for Vince to go mental and have to be dragged out the door.

paranoid wreck

Hey just thought I would let ye know. I was listening to the Bill Simmons (massively popular ESPN personality) podcast this morning and he talked about the pay per view on Sunday for the last ten minutes.

He said he has CM Punk on the podcast later on in the week. He has been trying for ages to get him on and now he has agreed.

The podcast is called the BS Report if anyone is interested.

jaykhunter

Show Time wrote: »

Spot on i was waiting for Vince to go mental and have to be dragged out the door.

Ha, Vince has decided on the classy approach as of late; Rock's birthday celebration was the same.

One thing I love about WWE these days is that they tell the commentators to STFU when something important is going down. It really adds to the gravity and immersion.

grames_bond

Eire-Dearg wrote: »

They've still left the secret GM there too, which should've been gone long ago or tonight even.

I actually thought Trips was gonna announce that it was him all along!

Some grade A quality acting and if this is real/somewhat playing on real life events it is the end of an era!

Thank you Vince!

Lord TSC

Argh, wish I had money in my stock account. If the stock of WWE drops it will go back up over the next few weeks.

But noooo. I had to invest in Bank of Bloody Ireland who have eaten my money up -__-

Mr. Guappa

I thought that was a decent Raw. Sure it lacked the sizzle of previous weeks but everything that happened was logical and made sense from a storyline perspective.

I get the feeling that the Punk storyline will be a slow-burner for a few weeks so having the tournament final next week and HHH in charge gives us some fresh angles to keep things moving along. I've no idea what they have planned for SummerSlam but I reckon they know exactly what the plan is which is always a good thing.

jaykhunter

I think Cena/Vince should've started RAW where Vince fires Cena. And u could've still had HHH come out at the end to re-instate Cena. Either way it still made for interesting TV (even though the Championship tournament was made and played out quite limp-wristed) I'm not exactly chuffed to see HHH back on TV but i really hope it's purely a backstage role.

I'd love to find out how WWE stock does over the next while. I had no idea it was doing so badly.

Lord TSC

Oh God, I just realised....there's a fair chance that we'll be getting Cena vs Miz AGAIN at Summerslam, based off the probabilty that Cena will face the winner of the tourney next week :S

jaykhunter

Oh God

Don't worry ADR will intervene.....but you already knew that

It's hard to go from this Punk angle to johnny-run-of-the-mill-feud with any of these current permutations. At least Rey Cena would be a fresh match-up. For some reason I really don't care to see ADR Cena. Has he tapped him out before? More than once even?

drayme

Teamshadowclan wrote: »

Oh God, I just realised....there's a fair chance that we'll be getting Cena vs Miz AGAIN at Summerslam, based off the probabilty that Cena will face the winner of the tourney next week :S

WWE's plan for the Miz for Summerslam is

him wrestling a celebrity.

Garseys

drayme wrote: »

WWE's plan for the Miz for Summerslam is

him wrestling a celebrity.

Source?

drayme

Garseys wrote: »

Source?

John Piermani or what ever is name is, ex-Creative. WWE is just trying to find one that will do it.

Garseys

drayme wrote: »

John Piermani or what ever is name is, ex-Creative. WWE is just trying to find one that will do it.

Ah right, only after seeing creative recall now!

CMpunked

Teamshadowclan wrote: »

(Congrats Punked, cause you called that and I dismissed it :P )

Whats freaky is, a lot of ideas i had floating around in my head has come to pass so far this year.
Like remember the ATH question of how to get vince to step down, my idea was to have him slowly start to lose it on screen and fire cena and attempt to fire hhh when he reveals that he has bought his share of the company and that vince was done.

Fair enough, last night was less dramatic and in a way more believable.
AND when you consider my argument of punk winning the belt at mitb, leaving, teasing going to a different promotion and then posting pictures up of him fecking around with the belt?!:


I think its fair to say, I AM.. A WRESTLING GAWWD!

jaykhunter wrote: »

I think Cena/Vince should've started RAW where Vince fires Cena. And u could've still had HHH come out at the end to re-instate Cena.

That would have caused a shít storm in the sense that you can imagine the "Oh he got fired and was only gone for less than two weeks, now he gets fired by mcmahon and is only gone an hour."
If it hadve played out like that i could have seen it taking away from the severity of the final segment.


Personally i believe the recent rise in the wwe being more about all things wrestling is HHH's doing.
He cut his craft as a wrestler and knows exactly what should work from inside the ring.
Vince is great and everything (but from a business standpoint) i think with HHH being the more on screen boss that this could be ushering in a whole new era, one we have felt coming for a few weeks now.

JP Liz V1

Would it be really bad if WWE keep Cena off Raw for a few weeks at least?

I know Summerslam is a month away and of course he will probably be in the main event but at least have him off the show for a week or two so his "firing" looked somewhat the real deal maybe have HHH say at the end of next week's show he has rehired him back or have Teddy hire him for SD

I take it Miz's MITB injury wasnt legit?

Degag

I'd be very surprised if this doesn't turn into a Vince vs. HHH angle.

Liam O

Degag wrote: »

I'd be very surprised if this doesn't turn into a Vince vs. HHH angle.

Vince can't get in the ring anymore and nobody would have any loyalty to him really because of his cut throat style.

One thing is that HHH will have to go heel soon to properly deal with Punk imo.

SlickRic

Cena not being fired here shouldn't bother anyone.

McMahon said he'd be fired, and that's what he was going to do.

but the plotline, which made perfect sense, lead elsewhere, and somewhere we thought we'd reach soon, but maybe not this soon.

it is not the farce the "Nexus firing" was - not even close.

the reason that was a farce was because AFTER being fired, he was still on TV>

this made sense.

people shouldn't let Cena-hating get in the way of that.

and also, anyone who thinks McMahon being fired detracts from Punk needs to have another look. he has basically brought down the owner of the company, and is still champion while not being in the company.

he is the centrepiece of what WWE are doing creatively; and will continue to be until he comes back with the title, as everyone knows he is the REAL champion.

this is as big a push as anyone can hope for.

jaykhunter

I don't quite understand the board's decision of "no confidence". What has Vince done? Everything he has done over the last month has been perfectly reasonable.

CMpunked

jaykhunter wrote: »

I don't quite understand the board's decision of "no confidence". What has Vince done? Everything he has done over the last month has been perfectly reasonable.

Lets look at what vince done in the last few weeks:

Claimed he would fire John Cena if punk left as champ.
Tried to recreate the screwjob finish from 14 years ago, again, one that made him (and the company) look bad from a business point of view.
Lost the title to a non-employee and was ready and willing to fire Cena, potentially losing him to another company, brother.

From a 'business' point of view that all makes sense.
Through vinces actions he has lost the centerpiece prize in the wwe, leaving the company with not only no championship OR champion.
And he nearly got rid of the biggest name in the E.
HHH said that he was after coming from a meeting which was held that morning, not that it was a decision that was made over a month.
So going by that, it was vinces actions sunday night and what he was willing to do last night that caused the vote of no confidence.

jaykhunter

If we lay that out chronologically (kayfabe) -

- Punk cut an very unprofessional promo; so Vince suspended him.

- Cena demanded Punk come back so Vince relented to please the WWE Champion; but put in his own stip (you're fired) to demonstrate the seriousness of the situation

- Vince, realising the monetary potential of Punk, feverishly tries to resign him, humbling himself in public in the process, doing whatever he could to keep him in WWE

- Vince tries to force Cena's hand to protect the WWE (via screwjob and it backfires)

- Vince wants to live up to his word from 2 weeks ago (reluctantly firing Cena)

Not the most monstrous mistakes! I'd imagine if Cena won, all of this wouldn't be a problem; something he tried his best to make happen.

as an aside, business-wise, screwing Bret was totally the right thing to do :P

CMpunked

jaykhunter wrote: »

Not the most monstrous mistakes! I'd imagine if Cena won, all of this wouldn't be a problem; something he tried his best to make happen.

as an aside, business-wise, screwing Bret was totally the right thing to do :P

Your right, not the biggest mistakes ever, but it was the one he was going to make a few later had hhh not intervened.

Yeah man, the screwjob was great for business, arent they making a dvd on it now? :pac:

Penn

jaykhunter wrote: »

If we lay that out chronologically (kayfabe) -

- Punk cut an very unprofessional promo; so Vince suspended him.

- Cena demanded Punk come back so Vince relented to please the WWE Champion; but put in his own stip (you're fired) to demonstrate the seriousness of the situation

- Vince, realising the monetary potential of Punk, feverishly tries to resign him, humbling himself in public in the process, doing whatever he could to keep him in WWE

- Vince tries to force Cena's hand to protect the WWE (via screwjob and it backfires)

- Vince wants to live up to his word from 2 weeks ago (reluctantly firing Cena)

Not the most monstrous mistakes! I'd imagine if Cena won, all of this wouldn't be a problem; something he tried his best to make happen.

as an aside, business-wise, screwing Bret was totally the right thing to do :P

Giving in to Cena and risking the WWE title was his biggest mistake. He could have let the match go ahead but without the title on the line to please Cena and eliminate the risk of Punk leaving with the title. Then adding the stip of Cena being fired, and the WWE losing their cash cow means Vince's decisions were extremely risky and unjustified when there were better solutions out there for the business.

He tried to make sure Punk didn't leave with the title, but he shouldn't have risked it in the first place. That's why the Board are getting rid of him.

jaykhunter

That does make sense, although I think Cena would've walked out on Vince had he not reinstated Punk AND made it for the WWE title. I think Cena actually gave McMahon the belt and walked out and Vince had to catch up to him on top of the ramp when he gave in to Cena's demands. He did let the ego get the best of him by imposing another stip (that Cena would be fired)

Besides that he really did what was best for business. Can't blame him for wanting to honour his own stips; we've seen it dashed so many times before. That said he could've just had HHH re-hire him :P

Is Cena being not fired at all better than being fired for 90 minutes? (say if he was fired at the start of raw and rehired at the end)......do u think that's better than being fired for a week? (getting fired at the end of RAW and have HHH come out next week and re-hire Cena/fire Vince)? Or do u think the way it went down was the best of the scenarios?

CMpunked

But Cena wasnt fired?

HHH told vince he wasnt going to be firing Cena "...Or making any other decisions.." Or somethng to that effect.

paddyismaddy

how many times does del rio have to win a shot at the wwe title :rolleyes:

kinda let down by raw but i dont really know what i was expecting after mitb

ricero

fair play hhh he gets to bang the bosses daughter and then gets groomed to take over the biggest wrestling business in the world and to think he use to look like this .

anyway with hhh running the scenes story line wise and vince behind the scenes i can only see success for the wwe over the next couple of years and more importantly great times for us fans.